Computer Blew

Jailbreak blues

Do I dare begin a blog with not one, but two Apple posts?  Yes, because although I spend a good 10-12 hours a day behind a computer, I like to live dangerously.

And live dangerously I shall.  Today, the hacker “Dream Team” known as Chronic Dev (which, not unlike the actual Dream Team, is made up of incredibly talented people working overtime on something you don’t really care about) released jailbreak tools to the iPhone 4s and iPad 2.  Why is this important?  Honestly for most people, it isn’t, but hopefully we can change that.

For the restless nerds amongst us, however, it’s awesome.   If you don’t already know what it is, you probably, - scratch that - definitely - should not be doing it, but basically, “jailbreaking” is the term used to describe hacking your Apple iProduct to run software Apple doesn’t want you to run.   This involves small teams combing over lines and lines of code from Apple crash reports, looking for patterns that will let them develop a software exploit.  Once they publish their work, anyone can download and install custom apps and software that can dramatically change the way you use your iPhone or iPad, usually long before Apple gets around to officially supporting it (here’s a few of them, here)

For example, before Apple allowed multitasking for apps on the iPhone, users that wanted to, say, click a link in an email and view a webpage, would have to exit out of the Safari browser when they were done and navigate back to their email to finish reading it.  A jailbreak fix for multitasking predated Apple’s official support by over a year. 

Another example?  Those stupid blue notification popups.  Everybody hated them, so a guy by the name of Peter Hajas created MobileNotifier - a jailbreak app which replaced them with a minimalist notification at the top of your iPhone display and didn’t interrupt what you were doing.  Sound familiar?  It’s because after getting hired by Apple, that same system is now how notifications work on the iPhone.

So it’s safe to say Apple has no problem lifting ideas from the jailbreak community, because hey, a good idea is a good idea.

I’m using a jailbroken iPhone 4 right now, as a matter of fact, and plan on doing the same to my iPad 2, once I get some free time.  But why go through all the trouble?  Because I paid good money for these things, that’s why.  Imagine buying a car and Toyota telling you you’re only allowed to shop at Target or only allowed to fill it with Arco gas.  Or if you bought a PC and Microsoft only let you use Internet Explorer.  With a jailbroken phone I can do crazy, out of this world stuff like decide which internet browser I want to use, see individual saved files, or get rid of stock apps Apple insists on keeping on your homescreen (looking at you, NewsStand). 

Shocking stuff people have been doing on computers (Macs and PCs) since before I was born.

If it wasn’t so obvious that Apple was barreling ahead on a path of tighter security and more restrictive software (see yesterday’s post on iBooks 2), the jailbreak community would give me hope about new features and openness policies down the road.  But that’s not the case.  Each software update (sometimes released just days after a jailbreak exploit is found) closes the window hackers used to free the iPhone, usually sending them back to square one.  Additionally, hardware redesigns, like the use of dual-core processors in the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 threw another curveball at the jailbreak community and was a major reason why jailbreak tools are only now being released.

While jailbreaking has been declared perfectly legal, and while the company has gotten some of its best features from jailbreak apps, Apple still insists on strictly enforcing a closed ecosystem that limits choice, impedes innovation and disrespects users.  This is the most frustrating part of the whole process.  As someone who loves their software and design, I wish they would let me use it the way I wanted.